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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

I had a great week! For the most part I felt fabulous even with the pregnancy and I got a lot done around the house and spent some fabulous time crafting. I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced to celebrate my achievements.

First I made some progress on the Russian dolls quilt that I've been planning on working on for months now...

These are two of the fourteen rows that will make up the quilt. It will follow this pattern with seven of the first row and seven of the second to create sort of a herringbone look.

I added yet a few more rows to my white crochet blanket for my baby. It is to be 54 rows like this with two rows of edging. I'm on row 22 right now so it's coming along.

I also started a colorful crochet blanket for the baby. I love Herrschners and find myself going there often for their afghan kits which this is one of. It comes with the pattern and all the yarn you need usually for a nice discount. This scallop pattern caught my eye and seems like it would be fun texture for the baby. I just started the last row (pink) in the set and it will repeat six times for a blanket about 35" square.

Even will all this progress there are things I didn't get to but hope to soon...
- Scrapbooking - I've been feeling the bug but my hubby has taken over my room to paint shelves for our remodel. Sadly I can't get to my scrapbook table but he's nearly done!
- Nancy Drew Quilt - I need to get quilting on this one but I'm loving working on stuff for the baby and can't seem to make it happen.
- Ruby Quilt - I would love to work on the quilt for my baby Ruby but I really need to get the Russian quilt done for my SIL first as her baby is due mid-May.

I hope to get even more done this week and am crossing my fingers that I continue to feel great. Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

So I'd heard the Google Reader rumors but hadn't really paid much attention because I never used the google reader. I just went to my blogger dashboard and saw the feed there. Well, I guess the change will affect that too? I decided to jump on the Bloglovin' bandwagon and I was shocked with how easy it was!!
I went to bloglovin.com then entered in my email and such and it automatically imported all the blogs I follow from Google friend connect. It took less than a minute and I follow a lot! Then there was a small link in the corner for follow buttons and I clicked on that and it gave me a button for my blog easy as pie. I didn't even have to enter in the code! It took me back to blogger and did all the work for me I just had to hit the submit button.

Guess what... I even already have ten followers! I adore followers and each time I get a new one I do a happy dance and tell my hubby. So, if you're so inclined click the button in the top left and follow me on Bloglovin or just come back and visit me again to make my day!

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

I'm finally feeling great with this pregnancy and getting SO much done! I seem to have a million works in progress right now but I always try to work on one at a time so most of them have no progress. I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday.

I'll start with the most exciting work in progress...

We're having a girl baby! I'm so excited! We found out last Thursday and I already had a name lined up. Ruby will join us the very end of July.

I made this super fun quilted and lined zipper pouch for the Nancy Drew blog hop I was in. I even wrote up a tutorial for it that can be found here. It was really fun and easy to make.

I volunteered my sewing abilities to be a pattern tester for Jenilyn over at Grits and Giggles. I was so excited to work with one of her patterns and it was so fun and easy! This is the fabric I picked up for it. It's from Riley Blake's Fly a Kite line that came out last year along with some giant brown ricrac.

I can't show the finished product until she publishes the pattern but here's a fun little sneak peek of the corner.

My hubby has been diligently working on our home remodel projects lately. In order to have him work better the four kids and I went to a friends house to play. I took along the crocheted blanket I'm making for Ruby and it doubled in size while we were there. I'm so excited it no longer looks like a scarf!!

I also am gearing up to make a quilt for baby Ruby. I happen to have a bunch of Ruby by Bonnie and Camille for Moda and it's just perfect for a quilt for her! A while ago a saw the All Framed Up quilt posted by Melissa from Happy Quilting on Moda Bake Shop and I knew I had to have it. I am so excited to have a baby to make it for now I can't wait to get started! I better hurry up and finish a few other projects first though.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

My original hop day was last Friday but I was horrifically ill starting Wednesday. It was so bad I ended up in the hospital. It was a horrible stomach bug combined with the pregnancy and severe dehydration. I emailed Carol and she was sweet enough to let me reschedule for the 15th. Many of you stopped by and left sweet comments and it really made my day! Thank you for being so understanding!

I had big plans for this hop but everything seemed against me! First the pregnancy with its non-stop nausea then the illness. I'm happy to say I still created some great projects and I can't wait to see what the other lovely people I'm sharing the day with made. Be sure to check them out too with the links below...

I adore Nancy Drew and the fabric was so fun I didn't want to cut it down. I designed the quilt using 36 layer cake squares and 2" sashing with a 5" border. The sashing fabric is the black magnifying glasses and I think it does so well setting off the other squares. I had planned on quilting it and using the giant book cover as the backing but then the illness struck. Hopefully I get to it soon! For more on this quilt see this post.

I had six layer cake squares left and I used four of them to make this fun quilted and lined zipper pouch for my Nook Tablet. It's my first successful zipper application in about six years. I loved it so much I wrote a tutorial on how to make the zipper pouch.

Here's another picture of the pouch. I'm so happy with my progress and that I was able to come up with something fun and useful for this hop.

I have always had a great fear of zippers. I don't exactly remember where this fear originated but I figured it was time to nip that in the bud. I was so successful in my endeavor that I decided to write a tutorial so others can join me in my success. The tutorial is for a quilted and lined zipper pouch - seen below. Be sure to read through the entire tutorial before starting.

I wanted to make something fun and useful with my Nancy Drew fabric. My Nook Tablet needed a new case and the idea was born!

Supplies: Four pieces from a layer cake or four pieces about two inches larger than you want your final product to be. You'll also need batting and a zipper.

To make the quilting step easier I spray basted my fabric to my batting after cutting the batting slightly larger than my fabric.

Quilt just the one layer onto the batting. Be sure to use the fabric you want on the outside. I'm more or less new to free motion quilting and I decided this would be the perfect time for me to try out my skills. The diagonal wavy lines I attempted turned out pretty good.

Cut to size. It is very important that you do this AFTER you quilt because your piece will bunch up and shrink a little with the quilting. Make sure you cut your non-quilted or lining pieces down too.

Ready to sew! Just FYI, for the Nook Tablet I needed the pieces to be 9.5" by 7.5" with a 6" zipper.

Layer and sew on zipper. Put your lining piece right side up. Then the zipper also right side up. Finally place the quilted pieces with right sides together. See picture. Sew with a zipper foot lining up with the edge all the way across with the needle closer to the teeth. Tip:When you get to the zipper pull it's really hard to go around. With the needle down stop and move the zipper pull out of the way and keep going.

Layer on the other pieces and repeat. Again start with the lining piece right side up. Then place the side you just sewed with lining sides together with the zipper on top. Finally place your quilted piece on top. See picture. Once again sew all the way across with the zipper foot on the edge and the needle closer to the teeth.

Press away from zipper teeth. This step makes the top stitching much simpler.

Top Stitch. Sew 1/4" on either side of the zipper and go all the way across.

Your project should now look like this.

Place matching sides together. The lining should go with the lining and the quilted with its pair. Make sure the zipper is unzipped so you can flip it after you sew around.

Sew 1/4" around. Leaving about a three inch hole (mine is about 2" and was slightly small) start on the lining side and sew 1/4" inch from the edge all the way around.

Flip right side out. Using the hole you just made turn the whole thing right side out. There will be a hole left in the binding which you will take care of in the next step. Make sure to push out your corners so they lie flat.

Sew up the hole in the lining. Since it is going to live at the bottom of my bag I just did a top stitch 1/8" away from the edge. If you really care you could hide your seam.

Bask in the glory of a job well done. Hurray! You made a quilted and lined zipper pouch!

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

I have done so much in the last week it's amazing!! I'm finally feeling like I have this pregnancy under control and I've happily jumped back into the sewing/blogging world. Since I actually have a few works in progress I decided to post and link up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

I participated in the Starburst Quilt-A-Long over at Happy Quilting and I just love how it turned out! I took it to the quilters a few days ago but don't expect it back for a few weeks because she's backed up. She's going to do a swirly pattern with leaves mixed in. I can't wait to see it! For more on this quilt and the horrible injury I sustained making it go here.

I did a few more rows on the afghan I'm making for my baby. I'm loving this pattern which I found free on Ravelry but have since lost the link. Good thing I remember the pattern! I hope to find it again soon and post it in a future post especially because there is a border than I need the pattern for.

Two days ago before bed I decided to make a quilt with my Nancy Drew fabric I got for Christmas. Yesterday I went and got the fabric and I'm amazed at my progress on this quilt! I'm part of the Nancy Drew Blog Hop which starts today and I hope to get it finished in time for my post on Friday, if not I do have a backup project with the same fabric.

I decided this fabric was too fun to cut up so I'm just doing a grid with the layer cake squares. After a lot of playing this my layout.

My local quilt shop only had two prints left from the Nancy Drew line, good thing I loved them! The black is the little magnifying glasses and the book covers will go on the back. So this is the quilt top. I started it yesterday afternoon and finished it this morning. It was super fast and I just love how it turned out! It's about 78" square so perfect for snuggling while reading a book. Now just to quilt and bind before Friday. I can do it!

I finally feel like I'm back to my normal productive self and I have so many great things going or in the planning stages. Hurray for productivity and here's to another great week! Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, March 3, 2013

After nearly two days of intensive work I finished the top for my Starburst Quilt-A-Long hosted by the fabulous Melissa of Happy Quilting. I love it as much as I thought I would!! It went together super fast especially considering I only had the various components Friday night (like the flying geese and half-square triangles). I'm having a hard time picking a favorite block. The fabric is Bella by Lotta Jansdotter. The quit is 95" square with 40" blocks. It will be living on my bed when it is finished and will be the first quilt I've made for my bed, it's about time I got to me.

Here's the yellow version. It's so bright and cheery!

The orange block. I am not a huge fan of orange but I just love this one!

The teal, much like the orange with a different gray fabric. I love the bird in the tree. I wanted this print for the back but my favorite online fabric shop The Intrepid Thread didn't have enough. She had a great substitute though which I'll show off after it's quilted.

This color of blue is my favorite color ever. So of course this block is the best one. I love the flower print!

It was super cold and quite windy while I was taking this picture but the wind managed to press it against the garage and I finally got off a decent shot. I'll take more after it's quilted but I'm so excited I finished the top!!

I'm glad my hurt finger held out long enough for me to finish up the quilt! I kept banging it and oh man the pain! Otherwise it wasn't too bad as sewing really doesn't use your middle finger too much. Now to rest a bit and let it heal some more.

Friday, March 1, 2013

I figured since it was a new month it was the perfect time to get back into the groove. It's been just over a month since my last post but I haven't done much because of this rough pregnancy. I kept thinking I'd feel better and it kept not happening. Now I think I have the nausea under control and I decided to get back into crafting. Unfortunately after only about an hour I sliced a chunk of my finger off with my rotary cutter. OUCH!! A LOT!!!

It happened to be the middle finger on my left hand which makes this picture funny but probably mildly offensive. My hubby came to talk to me while I was trimming some HST down. He surprised me and I turn to look at him and cut off the corner of my middle finger. I removed quite a bit and there was a lot of pain and blood. My amazing friend took the two kids we had at home while my hubby took me to the hospital. The doc said it wasn't that bad and the chunk I lost will grow back without any deformity. I think if something has to "grow back" it's pretty serious. It hurt like crazy as they were checking it out but the lovely doctor had compassion on me and numbed it up. He was my new best friend!

I had 64 HST to trim but only got through 30 before I hacked off my finger. It was still numb when I came home but the doc said it would hurt in a few hours, especially if I bumped it. I was totally afraid of my rotary cutter but I wanted to get back on the horse. I finished the remaining 34 HST. The numbness started to wear off near the end but I figured it would be worse tomorrow so I just got it done. I'm so happy now all I have left is to put the blocks together for my Starburst Quilt-a-Long.

A few weeks ago I finished the flying geese portion of the Starburst Quilt-a-long. I wasn't up to blogging and since this was all I had I just waited until I had more progress. Melissa's no waste method was pretty awesome and they turned out pretty straight which is always a problem with me and geese. See the tutorial here.

I'm also working on a crocheted blanket for my baby due early August. I'm loving how it is turning out.

It's so unlike me to go almost a month with only this much to show for it but at least I finally have done something. Hopefully next time I feel up to crafting I won't have another accident. Once is enough. I have big plans for this month which hopefully include two quilt finishes a few small projects and some exciting starts. I feel kind of sheepish because I've been using a rotary cutter for 16 years now with no incidents and then one moment of inattention and my perfect record was broken.